A major Queensland events tourism promoter is concerned that Sunshine Coast Council needs more consultation with stakeholders to ensure that its multimillion-dollar recreation and sports precinct “meets the brief”.
The council unanimously endorsed developing the Honey Farm Sport and Recreation Precinct in March 2021 after buying the 75-hectare Meridan Plains site in 2011.
Its website states that the precinct is “one of many projects council is delivering in-line with the Environment and Liveability Strategy, which provides long-term direction to guide growth and shape the future of our healthy, smart and creative region”.
“The master plan will guide the development of formal and informal sport, leisure and recreation activities, catering for current and future growth and trends in sport and recreation activities. Development will be staged in-line with budget availability. This facility will encourage the community to be involved in active sports, outdoor recreation, healthy living and community events,” it says.
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The sporting hub includes 10 fields and ovals, nature trails and dog-friendly facilities, active youth and play spaces, wetland experiences and community events.
The $20 million stage 1 is expected to be completed in 2024 before detailed designs begin on stage 2.
Work has been undertaken on bulk earthworks, drainage and access for stage one, as well as the District Recreation Park, wetlands, turf and field lighting, fields and ovals.
But Maroochydore-based Australian Events director Bob Carroll said he had viewed concept and master plan documents relating to the venture and met with a council representative on site (near the northern side of Caloundra Road opposite the Sunshine Coast Turf Club).
With property frontages to Honey Farm and Sattler roads, the location at the gateway to Caloundra was ideal, he said, due to the easy access to the Bruce Highway, north and south, and to the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane airports.
However, Mr Carroll has previously voiced his misgivings about the master plan.
Now he has warned that the council must get the master plan right, first time, meeting major logistical requirements needed to host major outdoor events and festivals.
The best placement of an entry point, for example, was vital to ensure smooth set-up and takedown of stages, marquees and vehicle access for organisers.
“For the future, you really need to do a number of key things, if you want this to be a multi-purpose, long-term, really important economic driver,” said Mr Carroll, as he prepared to host a Mackay event.
“They (the council) have got time to modify it still, but I think they’re just wasting money and wasting time.
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“And they are stuck there now. They’ve got no chance of getting any revenue out of it unless they change what they’re doing.
“Otherwise, they are going to be waiting until they finish it and then they’ll be hoping that the local sports clubs will use the facility to capacity. In a bizarre twist, the majority of the space has been allocated to two major cricket ovals that will dominate the use of the whole facility for over six months of the year.
“This is a unique parcel of land with enormous potential and they are squandering it.”
A council spokesperson said it was hoped the first facilities at the precinct would be ready in a few years.
“It is planned that we will see our first sporting fields commissioned and being used by the public in the 2026-27 financial year. With the large size and scale of this sports precinct, there are many stages of the project that will incrementally be developed over the subsequent years,” they said.
“All detailed design packages (civil, hydraulic, electrical, landscape, etc) for the Honey Farm Road Sport and Recreation Precinct are now complete.
“Initial ground works have commenced including stormwater, main drainage swale, revegetation works, access roads and car parks.
“The next stage of works will involve the start of bulk earthworks and this will occur during the 2023-24 financial year.
“Initial stages of construction and delivery will include the football (soccer) precinct, followed by the cricket precinct and events space.
“The dedicated events space within the Honey Farm Road Sport and Recreation Precinct will provide additional capacity to cater for community events such as music festivals and expos. This will relieve pressure from existing council-managed facilities which currently cater for events of this nature.
“Unique features of the Honey Farm Sports and Recreation Precinct, which until now have not been available elsewhere within council’s sports venue network, include the dedicated events space, criterium track to cater for local, regional and state level events, and Tier 2 level cricket facility.”
A Tier 2 level cricket facility is capable of hosting a women’s international series, ‘A’ series and international tour matches, Sheffield Shield and domestic limited-overs matches and Big Bash League games.
Mr Carroll said the council had made regional sporting facilities a priority, and rightly so, at the Sunshine Coast Stadium.
And he praised the Comiskey Group’s Coochin Fields development as having “a lot of merit” (if approved, the venture will become the largest festival site in Australia). But he lamented that the region lacked grounds that would attract more interest from entertainment and business promoters.
He said the various councils had been grappling with providing the region with purpose-built exhibition and convention centres and outdoor festival areas over more than three decades. But all had ended in false starts because projects became bogged down in conflicting interests of stakeholders, funding issues and bureaucratic red tape.
He noted the Groovin the Moo travelling music festival – the first to be held on the Sunshine Coast at the Kawana Sport Precinct’s Western Fields on Sunday, April 30 – had only allowed the grounds to recover at the 11th hour to allow scheduled football matches to be held the following Friday night.
Mr Carroll said the Western Fields were less than an ideal venue for a festival-type event, despite being able to “take a fair deal of punishment”, because they were on a floodplain.
But the Coast was fast running out of options and losing event tourism opportunities.
“Twelve years ago, we were staging three events at the Sunshine Coast Stadium grounds after running our first event at that facility 35 years ago,” he said.
“Twelve years ago, council told us that due to the enormous pressure on sports grounds and facilities on the Coast, and in particular the Stadium Grounds and the Western Fields, we would only be allowed to stage events between the end of September through until the end of February. From March to the middle of September, the fields were in use almost seven days a week not to mention sports carnivals and other club competition events.
“That meant we had to move one of the events to the Nambour Showgrounds, which we were happy to do but we had to go ‘cap in hand’ to council for very basic improvements and repairs.
“Even at Nambour Showgrounds our event has to be held early in the year and the date of that event is affected by the annual Nambour Show and also the major commitment at that venue to the cricket club, which is between September and March annually.
“We also used to have the Stitches and Craft event, which was originally held at the university in the Innovation Centre. When they turned that into a business incubation centre, we moved that to Lake Kawana Community Centre but it could not stay there once they built the other buildings alongside.
“That building was poorly designed and the council of the time failed to listen to recommendations and input from the event and exhibition industry.
“So, that event and a lot of other opportunities have vanished.”
Mr Carroll said that even after The Events Centre in Caloundra – the region’s premier performing arts and conference centre – had undergone a $6 million redevelopment, shortcomings were evident.
“I can’t do an exhibition there because there’s no loading dock,” he said.
“I can’t drive a forklift into it. If I want to unload exhibition panelling and display materials, I have to park the truck in the street and carry it upstairs in the front.”
Mr Carroll said his company had done “significant work with council on the urgent need for an alternative venue to be developed” eight years ago and recommended that the council-owned land on Honey Farm Road would be ideal and could be started immediately, with opportunities for immediate commercial return to council and enormous economic benefit to the Coast.
“They approved the adoption of the poorly designed master plan, ignoring the input from the exhibition and event industry, and have diddled about with it meaning that work has stalled and it is on standby once again,” he said.
At the time of the council endorsement, divisional councillor Peter Cox said the draft master plan provided a vision to create a sport and recreation precinct that promoted a healthy, smart and creative community.
“This precinct will become a place for everyone to enjoy as it’s been shaped by our community, for our community,” he told Sunshine Coast News.
“Most of the feedback found sporting fields and courts were the most important feature of the plan, closely followed by the youth activity node and criterium cycling course.
“Last year (2020) between 24 June and 24 July, we asked residents to tell us their thoughts on the master plan. This feedback found that 84 per cent of respondents supported the draft plan and in response to feedback, the draft plan was refined to meet the needs of the community.
“We also received feedback to consider the land for a range of non-sporting events. So, council looked into this through an event assessment process, which determined the site has a potential capacity to hold up to 30,000 patrons – a fantastic result to increase tourism and community events in the area.”
But the council will need to reply on external sources of funding to make the big picture a reality.
The website states that the council does not have the capacity to solely finance the recommendations from Honey Farm Sport and Recreation Precinct Master Plan.
“The adoption of the master plan provides council and stakeholders with a sound base to apply for state and federal governments for funding. This will be conducted in partnership with the precincts sport and recreation groups, the community and council,” it says.
The spokesperson said council’s bid for more funding for the project had already commenced.
“Council has already begun applying for state and federal grants to assist with funding for the Honey Farm Sport and Recreation Precinct,” they said.
“Council will continue to seek and apply for eligible external grant opportunities.”
To review the master plan visit council’s website.
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